How much offshore oil & gas is there, really? Imagine a PHEV (plug-in hybrid vehicle) you could plug in at home, and drive up to 40 miles and more a day (depending on the PHEV), without using any gas? Ford, GM, Toyota, Nissan, Volkswagen, and others have joined in the PHEV fever. Google is spending 10 mil to check it out. My personal fave is the Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid.

Or, better yet, my good old cruiser bike.

With Congress out on recess, there’s not a lot to talk about politically. O.k., except for this really ridiculous story of certain House Republicans claiming their floor protest called oil prices to fall. And of course, the Presidential.

But I actually wanted to point out a much more important story that ran in the New York Times last week. For years, I’ve heard Jeremy Jackson of Scripps say in his Shifting Baselines talks that we were headed to an ocean of little more than jellyfish.

I never had any reason to doubt him, but now it looks like his prophecy is actually coming true. That’s a really scary thought.

And it really gives urgency to what we do. If our political leaders aren’t willing to make some pretty significant changes to the way we manage our oceans, you can kiss that sushi goodbye. Never mind going to the beach. Unless you can enjoy painful, stinging welts. Yeah, I didn’t think so.

I know this is a shameless plug for what we do, but go check out our Endorsements page and you can see the candidates we’re supporting who will help us turn this situation around. We’ve got to elevate the profile of the oceans in Congress, or we’ll all be eating jellyfish burgers. So help us help these candidates today.

My brother is in China this week and sent me word that there is an exhibit on shark conservation at a museum in Taiwan. WHAT? A region that kills more than 100 million sharks a year for the delicacy, Shark Fin Soup is having an exhibit on shark conservation. I am amazed and pleased that there is such an exhibit. Any little bit helps towards ocean protection.

While a museum exhibit is a great undertaking, we all know the power of the small, individual actions – like inflating the tires or turning down the thermostat to save energy consumption. Or do we? A recent post In the LA Times, RUMBLE SEAT
Gauging the furor over Obama’s tire pressure remark, by Dan Neil states, “Americans have never been sold on the collective power of numbers, the notion that small, relatively painless gestures of conservation can add up. And so Jimmy Carter will be immortalized as a feckless thermostat-watcher in a cardigan.” In addition, he writes,” The offshore drilling position also enjoys the stupendous advantage of asking nothing from consumers.”

But there are folks that are making big changes for the consumer. The other day I ran into a fellow who works for Solar City. Solar City is a leading provider of solar power financing, design, installation and service. The chairman of their board is also Chairman of the Board for Tesla Motors, a new all electric American car company.

What I love about these companies is that American ingenuity is taking the lead. Instead of business as usual, these companies see that the best thing for their pocketbooks, the nation and the environment (oceans included) is to get off oil – domestic or imported. And they are putting the brains, money and drive to make that happen.

Well, I am one consumer that is going to inflate the tires and turn down my thermostat to save energy and money. I am saving for a Tesla Roadster.

It is just days before the Olympics opens in Beijing and I am not even tuned into any of the hoopla. I used to LOVE watching the Olympics. But not this year. Maybe it is because I am too preoccupied watching all the gymnastics on the Senate and House floor with the oil drilling issue. Or maybe it is because I just finished reading Maarten Troost’s book, Lost on Planet China and am too concerned with how all those athletes are going to be able to breathe in that polluted air.

And really, I am more of a Winter Olympics spectator – downhill racing, figure skating, bobsled. I vividly remember the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France. (Ok I am showing my age ) My mom woke my younger brothers and me up at 4:00 in the morning (No Tivo then) to watch Jerry Bujakowski, the one-man ski team from India. (I am not making this up) Jerry was a waiter with my older brothers at the Chart House in San Diego and a fantastic skier. He was born in India and therefore qualified to be on the Indian Olympic ski team. Any way, there we were all cuddled on the couch waiting to see Jerry in his downhill run. We watched Jean Claude Killy, a couple of Americans and then when Jerry was to race, ABC cut to a commercial! The network thought an Indian skier was of no interest to the American viewers.

Well, my mother gets up and goes to the phone in the kitchen (no cordless phones).

She calls the local ABC station and wants to know who is responsible for scheduling that commercial break. After several more calls, my mother finally gets a hold of some one in New York City. By the time she gets back to the living room and the commercials are over, the sportscasters on that mountainside in France are announcing that they will now replay the run of Indian skier, Jerry Bujakowski for his fans in San Diego, California.

From that day forward, I never doubted the power of a properly placed phone call.

So what does this story have to do with the price of tea in China or for that matter, the price of gas at the pump? It just proves that a phone call to your Senator and Representative to let them know to keep the moratorium on oil drilling in our oceans is vitally important and VERY effective. Let them know that offshore oil drilling will not affect the price of gasoline, but the risk to our oceans is too high a price to pay.

Congress is going on Summer recess and will be in their districts August 11th through September 5th. They are going to be hearing from their constituents and let’s make sure that what they hear is that it is important to their voters to protect our oceans and keep the moratorium on offshore oil drilling.

Today 5:37 a.m.

Me: (morning gravel voice answering phone) …”hel-loooh” …

Husband: …”Honey, you gotta wake up and meet the boys down at the beach with their running shoes in 20 minutes. They forgot them. I just dropped them off at the wharf.”

(Awareness starting to creep in). Oh, that’s right! My sons are participating in what I can only describe as ‘Volunteer Torture’, this a.m. It’s the 5th Annual CORE Run-Swim-Run-Swim-Run-Swim-Run-Swim-RUN Race. Really. They do this. They jump into the Monterey Bay at 6:00 a.m. and drag their skinny-boy-bodies 5 miles along the coast where they get out at the Capitola Wharf.

(Jeesch… is it asking too much for ME to get a little sleep around here?!).

It was a gorgeous morning. The boys finished the race. And, as I gazed out to the ocean, watching swimmers pull themselves out of the kelpie freeze, all I could think of was how happy I am we do NOT have to worry about oil drilling, here. (At least for the time being.)

What a way to start the weekend.

There is nothing like a convergence of hundreds of highly intelligent women with opinions on pretty much everything. I was in estrogen-heaven at the recent Blogher Conference in San Francisco. Who could resist attending the panel discussion: ‘How To Take Names and Be Taken Seriously as a Political Blogger’? The featured ‘gals-with-big-guns’, Morra Aarons-Mele, Shark Fu, Mona Gable and Fausta, told it like it is… and, should be.

Naturally, I could not keep myself from asking the panel, “As voting women, living in one of the most interesting, and important times in America—what do each of you believe should be our top two issues to closely track over the next year?” (LOVED Shark Fu’s response to me as she cold-stared me with tongue firmly in cheek—“No, you DIDN’T just ask me to pick only two?!”). Here’s what we got: Shark Fu thinks we need to track education and equality—and all interrelatedness thereof. Mora Gamble thinks it’s the economy. She did a tremendous job of putting a personal face on poverty in describing a woman who “looks a lot like the rest of us” begging her for money on Union Square that same morning. And, Fausta believes we need to really figure the whole energy thing out. She did a great job of elevating Brazil’s model. (Are we really there?).

Listening closely, I’m pretty sure the people sitting next to me could actually hear my internal mantra… “say environment, say environment, say environment…”. Nope. No one was talking much about the environment. Despite the effort Blogher Conference planners tried to do in ‘greening’ the event. The only speaker who was really pushing on environmental protection was Diane MacEachern of Big Green Purse. (Bless her heart).

I guess as women today, we see so many urgent needs that need to be attended to,

it’s hard to know where to begin.

The last week has seen a flurry of articles on offshore drilling. The good news is that the Democratic leadership, particularly Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.) has taken a hard line and said that new offshore drilling is off the table.

We try to be as non-partisan as possible, but we have to call a spade a spade, and it’s become clear that the Republican leadership has decided that offshore drilling is a ripe campaign issue, and last week they killed a bill that would require oil companies to actually drill on the 68 million acres they currently have under lease, both on- and off-shore.

The real picture becomes clear when Sen. John McCain admits that the only purpose of drilling offshore is to provide “psychological benefits” to American consumers (Here’s the YouTube video of McCain making this outrageous statement.)

So this isn’t really about solutions for those of us who are feeling pain at the pump, it’s all about partisan politics. And there can be no worse reason to place our oceans at risk of an oil spill. What exactly are the “psychological benefits” of surfing in an oil slick?

Champs, check out this article posted on AlterNet written by Faiz Shakir, describing the three myths:

Myth 1: Drill here, drill now, pay less

Myth 2: China on our coasts

Myth 3: Not a drop was spilled

Grab that bar of wax, and get ready for a fun, small south swell this weekend. Predictions are for a 4-6 ft. swell, temperatures in the 70’s and 5 knot winds.

“Not to sound too deep or weird, but I think that the times when you really appreciate surfing are the times you’re really sort of becoming one with nature. Surfing’s as raw of a sport as it gets.” - Kelly Slater, 8 World Title Champ

Check out Slater’s recent victory at J Bay.

There is a sign in my local nursery that reads, “The best time to plant a tree is 30 years ago, the next best time is today.”

It was a little more than thirty years ago that President Jimmy Carter laid out his 10 point energy plan. It was a plan to address the growing need for energy and to foster less need on foreign energy sources. While the fundamental principles look to coal and strategic petroleum reserves (remember that 30 years ago the only environmental issue of burning fossil fuels was air pollution - we were not thinking about the impacts towards global warming) the plan does emphasize conservation and developing unconventional sources of energy.

Now fast forward to today and we see that the country is still reliant on foreign oil. There is a group calling for energy independence and the continuation of cheap energy. And the government is once again trying to lift the moratorium and allow oil drilling off of our coasts. At the same time the agency that oversees offshore oil, Department of Interior, is placing a moratorium on permits for solar panels on Bureau of Land Management lands until environmental impact reports can be complete.

So, I ask you, is the government really working to make the US energy independent or is it working to keep oil companies happy? What about all those industries that rely on clean oceans for a living?

Check out this article on Japan. What do you think we should do so that in 30 years the US is truly energy independent?